Lady Tide come close, but fall in end to Atkinson County

Lady Tide Derissa Crawford knocked in 11 points for Long County.

For three quarters Friday, it looked like the Lady Tide was going to secure their second win of the year. But a fourth-quarter surge by Atkinson resulted in the Lady Tide falling, 39-35, in Ludowici. The game started out even and was tied 16 at the half. In the third quarter, the Lady Tide’s Derissa Crawford put up nine big points to give Long County a 29-27 lead. But Atkinson County’s Keisha Wesley nailed three 3-point shots in the final period as the Rebels outscored Long County 11-6 to surge to the victory.Wesley was the leading scorer in the game with 18 points. Crawford and Mikayla Lovett co-led the Tide with 11 points each; Toni Johnson added seven points. Though her team lost, Long County coach Kala Hires did see positives in the game.“In many of our earlier games, we’ve had problems setting up plays and we’ve turned the ball over a lot. Tonight, we were patient on offense and had under 10 turnovers, which is good,” Hires said. “But tonight our defense killed us.”Hires also talked about the Lady Tide’s difficulty in being able to close out opponents.

“This is probably our sixth game that has went down to the wire,” she said. “Any of our starters are able to step it up and make big plays for us in the early part of our games, but we can’t find that person who can do that for us at the end of a game, to close out the game for us.”Hires also recognized the individual effort of Crawford, who led the Long County in rebounds during the game.Long County (1-10) is back on the court Tuesday when they travel to Pembroke to take on Bryan County. Game time is 6 p.m.